Together they are the team that can take on the world
by HandMeMyAxe
Summary: Team Free Will is on an important mission which directly affects Castiel and causes a rift between the brothers. The story is set-up sometime around season 6 but circumstances are somewhat different. What they face together is a test from which they emerge as a team that can conquer all while the personal bonds between each of them is strengthened.


_**I don't even own the house i live in,let alone Supernatural or the characters in it. They all belong to their rightful owners. This here is just my attempt to write my first Supernatural fan-fic.**_

Round and round and round and round...the slightly twisted blade of the ceiling fan makes a squeaky noise every time it makes one full rotation Sam notes. 367..368..369..370..371..'What am I doing..stop counting the rotations of the ceiling fan,its stupid.' Sam frowns mentally and removes his fixed gaze from it to take a look at the digital clock on the side table. Its close to 3 o' clock but in his head its 'why did you skip dinner now you are starving and can't go to sleep you moron' o'clock.

'Its all because of him' thinks Sam and looks at the bed on his right hand side where his brother is sleeping peacefully. Except its only peaceful to him because the snoring defies the word peace in every way. He makes a bitchface on Dean's sleeping form and wishes so much that he was at least a little bit awake right now to feel the powerful sting of it.

Anyways its gonna be morning soon and he'll have plenty of time for raining Dean with all the bitchfaces in the world. But before that he'd gorge on all the food he will have his hands on. No salad,maybe he'd have a burger,a juicy,delicious hamburger with fries and..pie..oh yes pie...in fact Dean's pie...that ought to teach Dean for pissing him off so much at night that he had to walk away from the diner and now? Now his stomach is growling.

He closes his eyes and next thing he knowns or 'feels' is something warm near his torso, like someone is sitting very close to him and...and a set of eyes very close to his face scrutinizing him and "OHMYGOD WHAT THE..." Sam almost jumps out of the bed. Cas moves his face a few inches back but the gaze is still there,studying his face like an object of great detail that needs to be studied.

"You are trying to count my facial pores or something Cas? " Sam quips.

"You are angry. Why are you angry?" Inquires Cas with concern.

Sam gets up from the bed and moves toward the bathroom without answering.

"Where's Dean?" he asks casually just before entering the bathroom.

"He has gone to the diner to get you pie and burger. He said you were saying those words in your sleep in the morning when he woke up and you were drooling. Also he said that you acted like a bitch last night and you are a giant girl sometimes"

"Yeah thanks Cas" Sam goes inside and shuts the bathroom door.

* * *

When he comes back he sees Dean whispering to Cas,as soon as he hears the bathroom door open he turns around and looks at Sam with a part surprised and part apologetic look on his face. Then he turns around looks at Cas and then looks nowhere in particular and says "I'll go and...wait in the car" to no one in particular.

Before turning around he looks at Sam again and hesitantly says "I got you breakfast,eat it and we can be on the road" and leaves as fast as he can to escape the awkwardness.

Sam nods at Dean and can't help but smile when he picks up the food bag and sees a hamburger and pecan pie inside.

"Cas you want some?"

"No thank you"

"you are gonna...keep standing there then?"

"Yes,I am comfortable"

"hmmm...great then"

* * *

Dean's attention was unequally divided between the song playing on the radio,the road ahead,the argument he had with Sam last night and also...on Cas,whose eyes were fixed intently and constantly on him,which Dean couldn't help but notice every few seconds in the rear-view mirror.

"Something on your mind Cas?" Dean looks at Cas through the rear-view mirror again.

"I am reading a lot of tension between you two"

Dean and Sam exchange a quick glance and look away.

"you are sensing a lot of things today Cas." Sam remarks.

"Yes because you are not telling me what's the matter with you two"

"Hey, how about we pay a little bit of attention on something important like I don't know the murderous spirit we are gonna be facing in about.." Dean takes a look at his wristwatch "...45 minutes?..that sounds good to you Cas?"

Sam chuckles and Cas after being quite for a few seconds averts his gaze from Dean and puts it in on Sam.

"how about 'you' tell me Sam? "

"Geez!" both Sam and Dean throw their hands in the air.

"Fine I'll find out myself" Cas sits back.

"Murderous spirit Cas..45 minutes..we are muderable...important! " Dean says matter of factly.

Cas huffs and looks out of the window.

* * *

"Give me the goddamn bullets Sam! "

"No! 'I' have the gun loaded with bullets,'I' am not bleeding like a hose and 'I' am going after the spirit!" Sam let's out a deep breath to calm himself and looks at Dean with 'Dean please just let me do this' face.

He picks up and throws a piece of cloth lying on the chair towards Cas. "Tie it on his arm" he moves out fast from the bedroom of the house they were holed up in for the past half an hour.

* * *

It didn't take much time after that.

The fact that the bitch somehow managed to put a deep laceration on his brother's arm exactly where he just sewed him up himself a few days ago,was enough to fill Sam with the right amount of rage he needed as a motivation to quickly find it and put the spirit to the proverbial bed forever.

This was really unfair,seeing his brother gasp in pain and to still keep stitching him up.

According to Dad he should be used to it after so many years.

But sorry Dad,I can never get used to it,to see my brother writhing in front of me and still trying his best not to show it on his face,to stay brave,nope,never getting used to it. Ever.

Thank god for the Tylenol he dosed Dean up with before even starting with the sutures,other wise it would have hurt Dean way too much and it would have been a problem for Sam to do his job.

* * *

Sam again finds himself laying on his back, staring at the ceiling fan and this time the reason that kept him up was the same- Dean.

But the circumstances...totally different.

When he looks at Dean moaning with pain in his sleep he can't stop from cursing himself. Just last night Dean was sleeping like a baby and tonight...it was going to be nothing like that.

_***FLASHBACK***_

"I like this diner! the waitresses at least don't look like dinosaurs." Dean shook his head up and down in 'me likey' and smiled the same mischievous smile (which didn't change at all since he was a kid just the reasons for it) after checking out the girl who just took their order.

The waitress left after placing their orders on the table and Dean was just about to pick up his burger when his phone buzzed in his jacket pocket. Dean huffed and put the phone to his ear.

"Hey Bobby!...how are ya?...I'm great...yeah the girl is fine too" Dean smirked and Sam rolled his eyes.

"Yeah? Ok..wait.." Dean made a writing gesture with his hand to Sam and Sam pulled out the pen and a paper out of his pocket and handed it to Dean.

" Mississippi...layrain street..504... uh-huh...okay...got it...anything else?" Dean looked up at Sam "...yeah sure tell me..."

Sam saw the color on his brother's face change and judging from the fact that Dean kept quiet and just listened to Bobby without saying anything in reply for 2 whole minutes made it clear that it was something grave that Bobby was telling him about.

"..hmm...alright...yeah sure...ok..thanks Bobby..you too,bye"

"What did he say?"

"Oh he found us a case. Mississippi.

Old man did all the research too,said we just need to go and get rid of it. Guess what it is...a vengeful spirit...quite sometime since we ganked one of those right?" Dean smirked.

"What else?"

Dean looked up again at his brother. "What?"

"What else did he say Dean?"

"Um...nothing much..about your hair and how he'll let me borrow his lawn mower for a day to get rid of it" Dean grinned.

The glare he received in return from Sam said enough.

"Sammy we can do this after we eat" He picked up his beer bottle and took a sip.

When the death glare didn't go away he sighed and put the beer down.

"Bobby figured out why Cas lost all his powers."

"Why?"

"It was because Cas had direct orders from heaven not to pull your soul out of the pit but he went against them and those bastards confiscated all his powers."

Sam sighed and looked away. "So that's why he didn't tell us,because...I was the reason behind it."

"Sammy listen..."

"He shouldn't have taken my soul out Dean"

"What?"

"I would have lived."

"Are you out of your friggin' mind?..are you even listening to yourself..Sam?"

"It was not that big of a deal"

"Not that big of a deal?...Do you even remember the things you did? What you became? Because I do...like for instance...uh...oh! do you even remember...you...you were having sex when I was being abducted by aliens...to say the least."

"You were not being abducted by aliens Dean."

"Whatever! At that time you thought I was being abducted by aliens and yet..."

"At least Cas wouldn't have lost his powers because of me. I mean I regret the thing I did,I do Dean but the consequences we'll have to face now is nothing compared to what would have happened if I didn't get my soul back...what the hell are we supposed to do without his powers now?"

"We'll figure it out."

"How?"

"I don't know!"

"You don't know how but you know we'll do it?"

"Yes,I am sure"

"You're su...how are you so sure of it Dean? How are you always sure of everything like what you say is carved on a stone somewhere?"

"Enough Sam! Stop it! Get over it! Cas got your soul back it was the right thing to do,end of story!"

"End of story?" Sam laughed in frustration. "Why does it always has to be your way?...just because dad bossed you around for years now it doesn't mean you can pick that stream up right after him when he is gone and you can do the same to me."

Dean was seeing red now. Sam crossed a line "You know what..you were a stubborn little punk back then and you are a stubborn little punk now. Nothing changed. I listened to dad because the man already had his hands full with you,you didn't let him keep his head straight for a minute. You always had to fess up and go against everything he said." As soon as those words left his mouth Dean knew he went overboard,that he shouldn't have said them.

Sam was burning with anger now,for a few seconds he was quiet,both of them kept staring at each other infuriated,after that Sam said the last lines he'd say to Dean that night.

"Yeah well,I couldn't be a precious little pet soldier to dad like you and I won't do that for you either." Sam picked up his jacket and left the diner furious beyond measures.

"Dammit!" Dean choked back his anger and forced his nerves to calm down.

When the waitress came back to get the plates from the empty table 15 minutes later,she saw the money on the table but found it weird that both the guys left their food untouched.

_***ENDS FLASHBACK***_

_***PRESENT***_

Its past 11 am and Sam doesn't wake Dean up because he needs his rest after the much troubled sleep he had last night.

He gets ready and walks out to the motel room next to theirs and knocks on the door. When Cas opens the door Sam asks him to go keep an eye on Dean while he makes a quick run for breakfast and Dean's meds.

* * *

Its past noon when Dean wakes up and looks around the room. Sam is sitting on the chair next to his bed,typing on his laptop and Cas is sitting on the bed Sam slept on while just looking at Dean with his thoughtful,blue eyes.

"Cas you need to stop that. It creeps the hell outta me" Dean says in a sleepy voice while getting up from the bed slowly,wincing because of the strain on his wound.

Sam chuckles and mumbles to himself "Tell me about it"

After his wound has been re-dressed by Sam and he has had his breakfast/lunch with another dose of painkillers along with antibiotics and of course the lunchtime beer Dean calls Bobby.

"Shit has started to hit the fan,lots of shit" Dean says as he throws the phone on the bed and sits on the chair opposite to Sam.

"We need to get your power back buddy,soon as we can."

"I know Dean,I have been thinking about that."

"What did you come up with?" Sam asks.

"Raphael is the one who took my powers he is up to something,something not good and he wants me out of the way."

"Son of a bitch,he never gave me a good vibe. Well none of your angel brethren do. But this one here is on a whole another level. Designer brand of asshole." Dean spits out in frustration.

"Well what do we do then?" Sam looks between both of them.

"Only option is that I need to convince him myself,to give me back my powers,I need to talk to him,face to face."

"So we'll summon the rat bastard"

"Its not so easy to summon him Dean he is a very high ranked angel" Cas answers.

"Yeah? well we have a very high ranked genius" Dean picks up the phone and dials Bobby's number again.

* * *

When he gets a call back from Bobby few hours later,they have a conversation for 15 minutes.

"Here is the list of things we need to whip up to pull out the bully who snatched your candy Cas" Dean smiles a big fake smile and slaps down a paper with a long list of items on the table.

When Sam and Cas take a look on the list their eyes go wide at the same time.

"Yeah,I know" Dean nods and smiles that big fake smile again.

* * *

After 2 days of traveling and searching through half of America (according to Dean) here they are in an old abandoned church.

Sam reads the long spell and Dean mixes all the contents in a giant silver bowl.

Sam finishes the spell and Dean lights up all the content on fire.

"You two have a lot of nerve pulling a stunt like this."

They all look up to see Raphael standing there,in the middle of the holy fire ring in his crisp gray suit.

"And you Castiel,you have come down to this? Wasn't loosing your powers punishment enough for you?"

"Yeah yeah you can have your bitching session later. Do what you are called here to do Raphael."

The flame in his eyes could burn through rocks which were now set on Dean.

Cas draws Raphael's attention towards himself. "You know what you did was not right Raphael"

"I followed protocol. You didn't follow the orders you were given and you lost your powers. As simple as it can get."

"Whose orders?" Asks Cas in his stone-cold tone.

"I don't need to answer any of your questions you are an abomination now,just like that boy." Raphael looks at Sam.

Dean grits his teeth in anger.

"I am not an abomination and neither is the boy,in fact i am afraid you are the one who is on the path of destruction"

"I am doing what we are supposed to do,I am not a traitor like you Castiel, I don't question authority,I don't go against them."

"Who exactly is this authority Raphael? Or is their any authority? I think not. I think you took my powers deliberately so that you can get rid of the obstacle hindering you from leading heaven into your vicious schemes."

"You have no right to question me or my decisions. You chose this fate for yourself and now you will suffer the consequences "

"Everyone has the right to choose their own destiny Raphael. You choose oppression as your tool to reign over and subjugate those weaker than you but it won't last long,they will see you for what you are."

"They already see me for what I am and they bow down before me and one day...you will bow down before me too,but not before you have been rightfully punished and ripped off of any and all delusions that corrupt your mind"

Just as Cas was about to retort back to Raphael a group of 3 angels,1 in female vessels and 2 in male,appear and surround Sam,Dean and Cas from behind.

"You didn't think you will pull out heaven's most powerful angel from his throne and no one will notice,did you?" Raphael sneers spitefully.

No time to be stunned Sam,Dean and Cas take out their hidden angel blades at the same time and turn back to fight.

Dean gets attacked by the female angel and meets her back with the due fight. After having injured his neck,arm and face and after lot of struggle he manages to stab her right through her gut while the other angel flips him hard to the far away wall.

Cas using the advantage of being aware of the fighting skills of angels pulls himself down dodging the attack of the angel in male vessel and taking him down with him.

He might have lost his power but Castiel was never weak he had a lot of fight left in him,he was a true warrior,he still had his unconquerable spirit which lacked in his opponent.

After putting up a strong fight he gains the upper hand and jabs the angel blade right through the angel's heart.

Meanwhile, Sam was in a severe combat with the strongest of the 3 angels and chances of him coming out of it as a winner were getting thin. When the angel was just about to kill him suddenly Dean comes from the back and stabs the angel in the middle of his spine.

All 3 angels lay dead on the ground with the huge imprints of their wings covering the ground.

Bloodied,heaving for breath and limping but without any signs of fear or trepidation on their faces,Sam, Dean and Cas rise up and stand to face Raphael with a look that said they are upto any and all challenge he throws their way.

For the first time Raphael realizes he is not dealing with just two humans and an angel,he is facing a 'team'.

Together they were so much more stronger than he ever anticipated them to be.

For the first time he sees them as a threat. The power,the fire in their eyes,forces him to question his own might.

He can manufacture an army of thousand angels and train them to fight for him but he can't manufacture a team like that,a team with free will.

"Surprised?" Dean smirks with his face titled to a side as blood drips from his forehead.

"You can't keep this going for long."Raphael says keeping his tone level and calm.

"Try us!" The conviction in Sam's voice matches the conviction in the eyes of the other two.

"Give me my powers back. Now! Raphael or you can rot here for all eternity" Cas states while wiping the blood on his chin with the heel of his hand.

"So what is it going to be Raphael? You want to see more blood shed of your own garrison and shorten your army in number one by one or you'll stand down and do the right thing?"

"You will pay for this Castiel"

Castiel moves and stands right in front of Raphael near the holy fire ring and looks straight into his eyes "Make sure to collect the price before you meet your own demise."

With nothing left to say and not seeing any means of escaping this situation Raphael extends his hand from inside the fire ring and puts it on Cas's forearm. A blinding stream of blue light emerges from his hand and meets the veins on Castiel's arm which moves and lights all through his upper body and reaches his eyes surrounding them,transferring all the power back to Castiel.

Castiel turns around and looks at Sam and Dean,all 3 take a final glance at Raphael and together they walk out of the church,side by side.

As soon as they are out of the place Cas without saying a word,puts one hand each on Sam and Dean and heals all their injuries.

* * *

Back in the motel Sam is sitting in front of the TV flipping channels while Dean is out,Cas comes and sit by Sam.

"Dean told me all about what you think regarding me pulling your soul back out" Cas was never the one to take the help of small talk before touching a sensitive subject.

"He did?"

"Yes,he told me that day when you were in the bathroom. I want you to know Sam..." this time Cas turns around and looks at Sam. Sam does the same. "...that giving you your soul back was not a mistake Sam. Never. Even if you had survived you wouldn't be what you used to be,what you are inside and what you are Sam,means a lot to your brother,means everything to him. He would have done anything to get your soul back. If it wasn't me,he would have found out another way and I am not entirely sure that way would have been any better than me doing it. So stop thinking about what happened and just let it go. Please."

Sam looks down feeling the pang of guilt he has been feeling since past couple of days now growing stronger in his gut.

"And you don't have to feel guilty about anything Sam. Dean is not angry at you,he can fight against the whole world but he can never remain angry with you. You mean the world to him."

Sam looks up at Cas again. Sometimes when out of the blue Cas just says these deep and meaningful words,it totally takes Sam by surprise.

Feeling at a loss of words he pulls Cas into a hug.

"Thanks Cas" that's all he can say.

Cas finds himself smiling. "So this is how it feels being embraced by you. Your hair is all over my face Sam."

Sam laughs and hugs him tighter.

"Sam now its getting in my eye"

Dean comes back at this moment and looks at both of them hugging.

"You two girls want me to go pick up 'The notebook' dvd and a box of wool so that you both can knit sweaters for me?" Dean grins.

"Shut up you jerk" Sam's laughter could be heard from outside the motel room.

_**Thank you so much for taking out the time to read my work. Since its my first fan-fic i would love to have your views so that i can know if i should keep writing more fan-fics or if i should stop altogether :P**_

_**Love,**_

_**HandMeMyAxe**_

_**P.S. i know creepy user name but i just made my account less than 24 hours ago,i'll change the name as soon as i come up with a good one. Meanwhile, rest assured i am not an axe-murderer, i just use it to scare people who don't like Supernatural huhahaha ;)**_


End file.
